Sundarbans

Sundarbans is the World's largest delta, famous for hosting the earth’s most extensive mangrove forest and home of the Royal Bengal Tiger. The Sundarbans span the border between India and Bangladesh where the super confluence of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers meet the sea. Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing people living here and already devastating increased extreme weather events are being felt, destroying lives, homes and farmland.

The warmer the sea gets the more powerful the winds and extreme weather events become. The tempestuous cyclone Aila was the second tropical cyclone to form within the Northern Indian Ocean in 2009. On the 25th of May it hit the Sundarbans delta on the Bangladesh and India border with full force, breaching defence walls, flooding farmland and flattening homes. Hundreds of people where killed and more than 22 000 lost their homes to the sea. A year after the cyclone huge parts of once fertile agricultural land has turned in to wasteland, destroyed by saline ocean water.

The tropical storm Aila had formed by warm air and water vapour over the Indian Ocean in the Bay of Bengal. During the last 100 years precipitation worldwide has increased by 20 percent. The occurrence of extreme weather events has risen dramatically in Asia during the last 60 years. The change in weather patterns is linked to higher water and air temperatures forming more vapour and clouds. The consequences look similar on all continents, heavier rains, storms and more extreme and ferocious cyclones. Rising sea surface temperatures has been identified as the leading cause. Extreme weather events and precipitation changes will most likely have a bigger impact on human society and ecosystems than actual changes in temperature. The warmer the sea gets the more powerful the winds and weather become.